In the last update I showed off a little bit of the game and prototype. Now it’s time to dive deeper into the game and see how it all comes together.
Bird’s-eye view
At the very beginning, players shuffle their hero deck to for a pile of available cards from which they will draw 6 cards to form their starting hand. They place a health tracker and energy tracker on their corresponding spots as well as any other markers for different heroes.
Sample player board - more on it next week
They are now ready to play the game.
The general idea is to have one or more characters battle it out with enemies. You select a card, activate its effect and deal damage to the enemies. Players get some help from item cards they collect along the way while event cards change some aspect of the current round and tell you what attacks enemies will try hit you with.
Once an enemy is defeated, the player dealing the final blow earns the main reward while the remaining players all earn the secondary reward. These rewards can either be item cards or coins. Coins can be then used to purchase an item from the marketplace and add them to the player’s hero.
Let’s now go through each of the elements to see what players can do to win the game. But before we do I just need to clarify a few more terms.
Assault and round
Each player selects 3 hero cards to play before they can select new cards to play. This is called an assault. For each assault, new enemies are spawned (if possible) and all used item cards are refreshed.
A round is simply one clockwise play of a single hero card by each player.
1 assault = 3 rounds.
Available, used, discard, and lost piles
Once a card is activated, it is put into the used pile. The card can’t be used in the current assault (except an event specifically allows it). Once an assault is over, players take their used pile which should have up to 3 cards and put 1 into the discard pile. They draw new cards (if possible) from the available pile until they have again 6 cards in their hand. Cards in the discard pile can’t be used until the hero rests.
When a rest is performed players take the entire discard pile and select 1 card they will put into the lost pile which will prevent players using this card for the rest of the game.
Resting
If a player is unable to select 3 cards for a new assault, they have to rest. Resting fully restores their energy and health. Also, as mentioned, they take all cards from the discard pile, put 1 card into the lost pile (and lose it for the rest of the game). The remaining cards are shuffled back into the available pile and players draw again up to their hand limit.
Players can choose to rest before they can’t select 3 cards for an assault when needed (low energy or health) but still go through the same process of losing a card into the lost pile so use this with caution.
Hero cards
Sample hero card
Each player has a number of different hero cards which enable them to perform actions. Some players have more cards than other but, in general, players have around 10 to 15 cards available.
Each card has a name, effects, and cost.
To activate a card players have to pay a certain amount of energy by reducing the amount of available energy on the player boards.
Once activated, players just read the card from top to bottom and execute all of its effects in order. Players put the card in the used pile.
Each card has also two special uses:
Default attack - pay 1 energy on any card to deal 2 damage points (DP)
Mend - players can use a card by simply putting it into the discard pile and gaining double the energy cost either as energy or health (i.e. a 2 energy card will give the hero 4 energy or 4 HP)
Item cards
Item cards are used in three ways: active, triggered, and discarded.
An active item cards are items placed in one of the two item slots and gives a permanent stat enhancement to the hero (e.g. immunity to status effects, fewer energy used for ability activation etc.).
Triggered item cards grant a bigger boost (e.g. gain energy/health, status effect infliction etc.) to a hero but the item then becomes inactive until the end of the assault. Until that happens no active item stat enhancement is available from that item.
The final way of using an item is by discarding it. Once discarded, the item card grants an even greater stat boost to the hero (e.g. increase max health/energy, revive a hero, restore full health/energy etc.). The discarded card is placed on the item cards discard pile and can’t be used anymore.
Enemy cards
Sample enemy card
At the start of every assault, a number of enemy cards are drawn equal to the half (rounded up) of the hero count.
There can never be more enemies than heroes in a single assault. If an assault starts with 2 enemies in a 3 player game, only 1 more enemy will be spawned instead of 2 (using the mentioned spawning rule above).
Some enemy cards can have instant effects which have to be resolved as the enemy cards are drawn.
Enemy cards have also 1 to 3 abilities with which the enemy can attack us. Each ability has a symbol next to it. These symbols are used together with the current event card to determine the attacks your enemies will perform
Event cards
Sample event card
At the start of every round, a new event card is drawn. It modifies the rules for the current round a little (e.g. can’t use quick attacks, players instantly lose a certain amount of HP etc.). At the bottom of the card you will also see a number of different symbols which lets you know the attacks your enemies will perform.
Symbols are separated into groups by spaces as well as selections separated by vertical lines ( | ).
Every enemy has to try to execute attacks for all groups. If a group has multiple symbols (selections) the left most is executed. If it can’t be executed, the next one in the same group is executed. If none of the attacks can be executed (no matching symbols), the next group is executed.
And that’s it!
It looks complicated but it all boils down to this.
Start an assault with three cards selected and placed on your hero board
Spawn monsters and resolve any instant effects
Start new round
Draw 1 event card and resolve it
Select 1 card from the the hero board and resolve it in clockwise order
If no monsters are available and you still have cards left, spawn 1 new monster. If you have cards left start a new round. Otherwise, take 1 of the three used cards, put it in the discard pile and start a new assault.
Next time, I will go a little deeper into the specifics of a single round after which you will be ready to play Unusual heroes.
Until then,
don’t forget to have fun!